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I had a teacher that solved this by saying all exams were open book, and then put so many questions that if you didnt know the material you'd just run out of ti

I had a teacher that solved this by saying all exams were open book, and then put so many questions that if you didnt know the material you'd just run out of time. Basically you could look up a very low number of things in the amount of time per question allotted

chillwaves 6y ago
Some people just work more slowly than others. Doesn't seem like a great solution.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- hombre_fatal 6y ago
  Most of my exams were like that in lower school and there was always enough time if you knew the material. It wasn’t open ended essay. An exam that has too many people timing out just isn’t a well balanced exam.
- smabie 6y ago
  And the real world penalizes people for that, for good reason. As such, I don't think there's anything wrong with time pressure on tests.
  - chillwaves 6y ago
    That's not what the test is supposed to measure.
- ntsplnkv2 6y ago
  Some people are slower runners, that doesn't mean we should slow down everyone else on a ball field.
  - chillwaves 6y ago
    A person taking a test more slowly has no effect on the people who finish more quickly.
    - iso947 6y ago
      If I’m employing someone I don’t care if they look up a few things in google or ask for occasional help. If they take 2 days rather than 2 hours though, that’s a problem.
      - maerF0x0 6y ago
        This is a bit of a topic a little too large for this thread, but there's definitely a philosophical and societal question if education is only, or even primarily for career. So there are many reasons why analogizing to a job would be insufficient for making decisions in education.
    - ntsplnkv2 6y ago
      They completed the task faster, why shouldn't that matter? Perhaps its unfair that they get no benefit for being better, no?
- asdff 6y ago
  Universities make accommodations for people who need to take more time.
  - topkai22 6y ago
    You mean for people, like me, who know you can ask, feel no shame doing so, and believe it won’t hurt their reputation by doing so? Oh, and possibly pay for expensive third party testing. It would be better to just provide tons of padding to everyone.
    - asdff 6y ago
      It won't hurt your reputation, its confidential information coordinated by your universities office for disability services (or some variant of that name). they even have private testing facilities if you are more comfortable in that environment rather than the lecture hall.
      - topkai22 6y ago
        You are right, and it is a very good thing they do, but all that information is not something that at least as significant minority of students are going to know ahead of time. For those students, there is perceived stigma going to the administration for help, and that prevents people from asking for it, even if that perception is not reality. Why make people ask for accommodations when we can just setup the infrastructure to make it unnecessary to begin with, at least in a wide variety of cases.
- topkai22 6y ago
  Yeah, I have slow hand writing. In one class I took a midterm and got marks for every question I answered, but ended up with a low C because I couldn’t physically write fast enough to finish the test. I thought that was ridiculous, went to the office of disability and went though the process to get an accommodation. I got to use a laptop on the next test and got an A instead. I’m sure there are some exceptions, but anything but the most generous time limitations in academic courses don’t seem to the improve the measurement of anything meaningful.
bawolff 6y ago
As someone who had slow "processing speed" growing up, that would suck.
userbinator 6y ago
I remember one who actually said "I do not expect you to finish all the questions" and gave an exam with many questions, but to his surprise, a few students (very few - approximately 2 out of 300+) including me, managed to race through them all. The questions were extremely easy for those who knew the material, such that you'd spend more time writing the answer than thinking. That sort of thing can't be done for all subject matter, however.
MarkMc 6y ago
If the students are being tested from home, you would still need to ensure that they weren't getting an expert friend to help them.

chillwaves 6y ago

Some people just work more slowly than others. Doesn't seem like a great solution.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
hombre_fatal 6y ago
Most of my exams were like that in lower school and there was always enough time if you knew the material. It wasn’t open ended essay. An exam that has too many people timing out just isn’t a well balanced exam.
smabie 6y ago
And the real world penalizes people for that, for good reason. As such, I don't think there's anything wrong with time pressure on tests.
- chillwaves 6y ago
  That's not what the test is supposed to measure.
ntsplnkv2 6y ago
Some people are slower runners, that doesn't mean we should slow down everyone else on a ball field.
- chillwaves 6y ago
  A person taking a test more slowly has no effect on the people who finish more quickly.
  - iso947 6y ago
    If I’m employing someone I don’t care if they look up a few things in google or ask for occasional help. If they take 2 days rather than 2 hours though, that’s a problem.
    - maerF0x0 6y ago
      This is a bit of a topic a little too large for this thread, but there's definitely a philosophical and societal question if education is only, or even primarily for career. So there are many reasons why analogizing to a job would be insufficient for making decisions in education.
  - ntsplnkv2 6y ago
    They completed the task faster, why shouldn't that matter? Perhaps its unfair that they get no benefit for being better, no?
asdff 6y ago
Universities make accommodations for people who need to take more time.
- topkai22 6y ago
  You mean for people, like me, who know you can ask, feel no shame doing so, and believe it won’t hurt their reputation by doing so? Oh, and possibly pay for expensive third party testing. It would be better to just provide tons of padding to everyone.
  - asdff 6y ago
    It won't hurt your reputation, its confidential information coordinated by your universities office for disability services (or some variant of that name). they even have private testing facilities if you are more comfortable in that environment rather than the lecture hall.
    - topkai22 6y ago
      You are right, and it is a very good thing they do, but all that information is not something that at least as significant minority of students are going to know ahead of time. For those students, there is perceived stigma going to the administration for help, and that prevents people from asking for it, even if that perception is not reality. Why make people ask for accommodations when we can just setup the infrastructure to make it unnecessary to begin with, at least in a wide variety of cases.
topkai22 6y ago
Yeah, I have slow hand writing. In one class I took a midterm and got marks for every question I answered, but ended up with a low C because I couldn’t physically write fast enough to finish the test. I thought that was ridiculous, went to the office of disability and went though the process to get an accommodation. I got to use a laptop on the next test and got an A instead. I’m sure there are some exceptions, but anything but the most generous time limitations in academic courses don’t seem to the improve the measurement of anything meaningful.

bawolff 6y ago

As someone who had slow "processing speed" growing up, that would suck.

userbinator 6y ago

I remember one who actually said "I do not expect you to finish all the questions" and gave an exam with many questions, but to his surprise, a few students (very few - approximately 2 out of 300+) including me, managed to race through them all. The questions were extremely easy for those who knew the material, such that you'd spend more time writing the answer than thinking. That sort of thing can't be done for all subject matter, however.

MarkMc 6y ago

If the students are being tested from home, you would still need to ensure that they weren't getting an expert friend to help them.